By Jim Walker

Well, so much for the old saying: “If March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb”.

It definitely did come in like a lion with a serious fall of snow, but has also decided to go out like one as well with yet another cold snap bringing biting winds, sleet and snow from the East. The timing of this is not great as we, like many others, are right in the middle of lambing both Scotch Mule and Blackface ewes.

These have already had a tough winter, with three significant falls of snow and waterlogged ground to contend with. Now they are lambing and being moved to wet fields that have absolutely no grass.

So, the worst winter since 1984 is now being followed by the worst early spring in living memory. With scanning percentages being really high, we were always going to need some early grass growth and a bit of luck to cope with so many triplets in the in-bye ewes and twins in the hill ewes, but of course this just hasn’t happened.

Consequently, twin lamb disease has been an issue with some demanding challenges in managing the nutrition of the various groups of ewes with so many lambs in them.

There will undoubtedly be increased mortality in the ewes and lambs, but the problems will go much deeper than that. With no grass to speak of, feed costs are through the roof with just about every lambed ewe getting fed twice a day.

The machines we use for rearing pet lambs are also earning their keep, with all triplets getting lifted after they have had a feed of colostrum and any twins that aren’t full of milk not being risked outside.

Now we are lifting twin lambs that can’t cope in the cold and the wet to add to the pet lamb total – that’s, of course, if the crows don’t get them first. In a decent spring, some of these ewes which struggle for milk when they lamb would be OK with a fresh bite of grass and a bit of TLC but not this year – there is no chance. Even Texel cross lambs with full bellies are succumbing to the wet and cold never mind hungry ones.

As reported in The SF last week, there are some horrendous stories of high mortality rates in ewes and lambs around the country and not just in Scotland. This is a UK wide issue with lack of grass and the cold and wet affecting farmers from one end of the country to the other.

The hill lambing hasn’t really started yet but there have been snow drifts lying about on hills around the country (including our own) which have been there for weeks. Michael snow-ploughed a foot and a half off the wind farm road today (Tuesday, April 3) – yes it is spring!

Any hill sheep that haven’t been fed, will be in poor condition and I fear hill lambings could be tough unless spring appears quickly. Actually, hill lambings will be tough even if spring comes soon, as the damage will already be done.

It’s not just sheep farmers that are struggling. With many folk having been unable to make either enough silage (or at least enough quality silage) for cattle, beef or dairy, last year, an early spring was essential. Couple that with a shortage of straw and the consequences for many are becoming desperate.

I’ve seen a few fertiliser spreaders out to try and force some growth, but with soil temperatures low, it’s my experience that this is a waste of time and money. Once we get some heat, fair enough, but with T-sums probably at record lows for early April, urea turning grass greener for a day or two seems totally pointless – Mother Nature has to do her bit as well and she isn’t playing.

So, I’m not really sure what many without enough silage will be able to do to cope with this dire situation. We are fortunate that we have plenty of silage left which is just as well, with more than 350 calves born over the last few weeks.

We keep them inside in a normal year until the grass comes after lambing, but that looks a long way off as I sit writing this with the snow blowing past. The cows, as well as sheep, have also had many multiple births this year, with 16 or 17 sets of twins – most of them not picked by the scanning.

Luckily, most of them have been viable and some have been handy to twin on to cows that have had mishaps. But in many ways, cows with twins are as big a nuisance as ewes with triplets. If some one could invent an injection to prevent both they could earn a fortune – I can assure you we would use it!

The most obvious sign of the impact of the weather over the last 7-8 months is being seen in the amount of fallen stock currently being collected.

With my biodiesel hat on, I buy Cat 1 tallow from renderers all around the UK and Ireland, which is where the tallow from fallen stock all ends up. In the last 12 years, I have never seen anything like it.

So the combination of high mortality rates and high feed bills will have a major financial impact on many, and many that can’t stand it.

Although recent high finished lamb prices are welcome, I fear all of this and more will be needed if Scottish livestock farms are to be profitable in the coming season.

Meanwhile, we still wait patiently for the outstanding support payments we are due from the Scottish Government as the feed bills mount up. I’m told the new Land Parcel Information System will hold up BPS payments even later than announced by Scottish Government last year – there’s a shock!

So despite the growing crisis around the country, it would appear there is a resigned acceptance that this is OK even in the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves in this spring. It’s an appalling situation actually, but no-one seems to give a damn.

With this latest bombshell there appears to be no attempt or pressure to get support payments into bank accounts any quicker, despite the cash flow difficulties across the country. I just don’t understand it to be honest.

Being told that ScotGov hope to get all these BPS payments out by the end of June just doesn’t cut the mustard, I’m afraid, never mind beef calf or ewe hogg money that hasn’t even had a mention yet.

Maybe politicians and the trade associations who lobby them are so transfixed by Brexit that they have forgotten the here and now and the challenges we are facing. Either way, they need to wake up and smell the coffee, because this is about as bad as a spring can get and the consequences are going to be expensive and long lasting.